The SAND neurochip and its embedding in the MiND system

Abstract

The system MiND (Multipurpose integrated Neural Device) is a tool for the development of artificial neural network applications which integrates hardware and software components. It includes a PCI neuro-board with up to four SAND (Simple Applicable Neural Device) neuro-chips. The neuro-board accelerates feedforward networks, RadialBasis-Function networks, and Kohonen feature maps. There are several simple to use software layers for exploiting the neuro-board. At the bottom, there is the driver’s С interface. Secondly, a number of С++ network classes are built on the C-drivers. Thirdly, comfortable simulators with graphical interfaces base on the С++ classes. These stem from a pool of "predefined" simulators provided by the MiND system. Each simulator is constituted by a network definition written in the neural network description language CONNECT, and by an interface definition script. The interface definition is based on a С++ network class generated from the CONNECT definition, and on abstract graphical user interface classes. A user can develop own network or interface definitions. Also, the С++ network classes can be exported for integration into custom applications.